Yes, students, there's a world beyond Wikipedia

November 02, 2010|By Karen All Cullotta, Special to Tribune Newspapers

For parents with fond memories of the Dewey Decimal System, library card catalogs and thumbing through their family's World Book Encyclopedia, it can come as a shock to discover that their own children's research habits often begin and end with a quick click on Wikipedia.

Heather Moorefield-Lang, the education and social-sciences librarian at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., and a former middle school librarian, is aware of the frustration both parents and educators experience when students limit their research efforts to Google and Wikipedia, when a wealth of online tools are at their fingertips, many free of charge.

"We all struggle to find the best tools to find information, and to present information," said Moorefield-Lang, a member of the American Association of School Librarians' task force assigned to study the best educational Web sites for kindergarten through 12th grade. The group has posted this year's Top 25 Web sites for Teaching and Learning on the American Library Association's site (ala.org).

With roughly 100 nominations, the task force selected the winners based on credibility, ease of use, interactivity and affordability. They run the gamut from content resources, such as the National Archives Digital Classroom (archives.gov/

"We know that in these economic times, families and schools don't have extra money to spend, so we prefer if the sites offer their content for free," said Moorefield-Lang, who offers snapshots of her favorite sites:.

Kindergarten – fifth grade

Professor Garfield (professorgarfield.org): "(It) is lots of fun, and great for writing stories, comic strips, and even for math and science projects."